Singapore Daily Oil Price Report

This blog will update the daily events recorded after the platts trading time. Accessing the mops and bunkerwire price of FO/MGO, Paperswaps, and deals done. News involving the industry and Market Reports. Stay Tuned!

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Prices steady on tight supply; Crude Rebound

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Asia's bunker fuel prices were largely unchanged Friday due to tight supply in some markets and suppliers' reluctance to lower prices. Also, crude futures rebounded during Asian trading hours despite sharp losses overnight. At 1045 GMT, light sweet crude for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading at $57.36 a barrel in electronic Access trade, or 21 cents higher than Thursday's floor close. Supply is getting tight in Japan as some local refineries there have sold out their October stocks, traders said. In the regional bellwether Singapore market, suppliers' reluctance to sell underpinned prices, despite poor demand Friday and more cargoes expected to arrive in Singapore next week, traders said. The price of 380 centistoke bunker fuel was quoted at $288-$291 a metric ton in Singapore, little changed from Thursday.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

To all Platts Subscriber!

To further enhance transparency in the Asian products assessment window, Platts will be adhering to the following timing standardsfor physical distillates and fuel oil, plus associated derivatives for publication on Platts Global Alert (PGA) page 190. The new standards will comeinto effect Dec 1, 2005.

- Initial physical cargo bid and offers should be submitted no later than 16:00:00 local Singapore time. Platts will consider incremental price changes made to physical bids and offers up to, but no later than, 16:25:00 local Singapore time.

- Initial spread bids and offers in the swaps markets should be submitted no later than 16:15:00 local Singapore time. The cut-off is applicable to spreads including jet/gasoil regrade, 180/380 CST viscosity and time spreads. Platts will consider incremental price changes made to spreads up to 16:30:00 local Singapore time.

- Initial outright swaps bids and offers (eg. December paper) should be submitted no later than 16:20:00 local Singapore time. Platts will consider incremental price changes made to outright swaps positions up to 16:30:00 local Singapore time.

Any open bid or offer published on PGA 190 should be executable by any credible and creditworthy company. Please note that all submissions are firm and those changes expressed too close to the current 17:30:00 time cut-off will be subjected to the customary three minute extension to enable executability. The time extension will also apply in the planned earlier closeof 16:30:00 Singapore time. For questions & comments contact paul_young@platts.com, jimmy_ang@platts.com and jorge_montepeque@platts.com

Prices Down; GS Caltex sells 200,000 MT

In the Singapore fuel oil swaps market, December swaps for 180 centistoke fuel oil were quoted at $284.50-$285.00 a metric ton compared with $288.50-$289.00/ton late Tuesday.

The price has fallen by 6% so far this month, but many Chinese buyers still deem it as too high.

"Crude futures in New York are about $57 a barrel now, almost the same as four months ago. However, the current cargo price of (180 cst) fuel oil is still about $30/ton higher than four months ago," said a trader for an end user in South China.

Partly due to this, demand from Chinese buyers, while increasing, is still not as strong as previously expected.

Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp. sold a 30,000-ton cargo of 180 cst fuel oil with 1% sulfur content, 1.06%-1.07% density for November loading to a Chinese trading house, said a company official Wednesday.

The premium of this cargo was lower than usual due to its high density, said the official, who declined to provide more details.

The export volume for December has yet to be decided, he added.

China is also a major buyer for South Korean exports.

GS Caltex, the second-largest refiner in the country, has sold 80% of its cargoes for December loading to China and Singapore, said a company official.

The company plans to export about 200,000 tons of straight-run fuel oil for December loading, unchanged from November, the official also said.

The bulk of December cargoes have already been sold out, with premiums less than $10/ton over the Singapore mean, on a free-on-board South Korea basis, he noted.